One of the first people to be named to the Trump administration was Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, a man who is so adept at analyzing information that he sent out at least 16 fake news (propaganda) stories on Twitter in the months leading up to the election. Many of them were about Hillary Clinton, most notably an outrageous lie that Hillary Clinton was involved in a child sex trafficking operation. Seriously. These revelations were so damaging that previous Flynn-backers, like General Barry McCaffrey, walked back their support and openly called for an investigation.
Nevertheless, Donald Trump is sticking by his Brietbart-reading, conspiracy-pushing National Security Advisor, although it does appear he’s been ordered to start deleting some of the most offensive fake news (lies):
Incoming National Security Adviser Michael Flynn has quietly deleted a tweet with a link to a fake news story about Hillary Clinton's involvement in sex crimes with minors.
In the since-deleted tweet from Nov. 2, Flynn linked to a story on TruePundit.com that falsely claimed the FBI investigation into Anthony Weiner had turned up evidence "to put Hillary (Clinton) and her crew away for life."
"U decide - NYPD Blows Whistle on New Hillary Emails: Money Laundering, Sex Crimes w Children, etc...MUST READ!" Flynn's tweet read.
This man’s job will be to read and decipher intelligence related to our nation’s security and then advise the president on national security policies. And yet, he has fallen for this obvious disinformation and/or completely batshit crazy conspiracies.
As if that weren’t bad enough, Lt. Gen. Flynn, who howled from the rooftops that Hillary Clinton should be jailed for mishandling classified information, himself inappropriately shared classified information:
A secret U.S. military investigation in 2010 determined that Michael T. Flynn, the retired Army general tapped to serve as national security adviser in the Trump White House, “inappropriately shared” classified information with foreign military officers in Afghanistan, newly released documents show.
General McCaffrey isn’t the only high level current and former intelligence official to call for Flynn to be replaced with someone less nuts:
OPPOSITION TO RETIRED Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Donald Trump’s pick for national security adviser, is spreading across Washington’s national security establishment. “You want the national security adviser to be a calming more than an exciting influence,” said Gen. Michael Hayden, former head of the Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency, at a luncheon on Wednesday held at the Fort Myers Officers’ Club. “Mike tweets more than his boss.”
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“You can’t be considered credible if you’re trafficking in bad information,” said David Rothkopf, CEO and editor of Foreign Policy, who once served in the National Security Council and wrote a book on its history. “Calling Islam a cancer is bad information. Trafficking in fake news, that’s bad information.”
“I’m watching a clown show,” said Philip Mudd, a former CIA and senior FBI official, on Tuesday. Mudd criticized Flynn for his behavior at the Republican National Convention, where he led the crowd in anti-Hillary Clinton “lock her up” chants. “I want to see a transition from a campaign to reality,” Mudd said. “I’m not seeing it yet.”
Will Donald Trump listen to the growing chorus of voices calling for Flynn to be replaced?